The head of a Malaysian consumer rights organization has called for a ban on Grand Theft Auto and similarly violent video games.

The move comes following the murder of a Bangkok cabbie last Saturday. Thai government officials were quick to link that killing to what they said was the 19-year-old suspect's Grand Theft Auto play.

In an op-ed for the Star Online, Mohamed Idris, president of the Consumers Association of Penang, writes:

It was recently reported that the Thai authorities have banned a computer video game known as Grand Theft Auto... Violent video games and television programmes have previously been linked to expressions of violence and aggression in young viewers. It is time for the authorities to act.

If this particular video game is available in Malaysia, CAP calls on the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs to immediately halt its sales and ban this game. The Ministry should also warn the public and any stocks that have already been sold should be recalled.

CAP also calls on the Ministry to initiate immediate measures to weed out similar games and halt sales and also their use in video game arcades.

GP: It's very odd to see a consumer group demanding censorship. One might think that the CAP, which has the stated objective of giving a voice to the little people, would prefer that Malyasian consumers have choices in their entertainment.

Gallagher can araç kiralama say all he wants, but I strongly rent a car believe it's due to his crappy leadership and E3 being a joke. ESA's Board of Directors need to find a way to get out rent a car of this horrid contract with this Bush cronie before there's no one left on the Board.

Btw, I think Atari and Midway will drop out too, but mostly travesti because these guys have done nothing ttnet vitamin or little and need to start saving costs.

GP: It's very odd to see a consumer group demanding censorship. One might think that the CAP, which has the stated objective of giving a voice to the little people, would prefer that Malyasian consumers have choices in their entertainment

Hehehe...hoboy, i'm only posting here for the 2nd time & this post seriously might ban me but godammit i just can't help myself.

See, i'm Malaysian so please don't yell at me and say i don't know what i'm talking about because i do. So here goes; why Malaysian consumer group demands censorship? Because we don't really have freedom of speeches & therefore Choices.* And yeah, that thing about Muslim? Therefore its normal for us to censor stuffs. And everything comes out a little too sensitive? Ban. Hell, we ban Daredevil a few years back because the title has the word devil in it.

* If you're Malaysian you know this is effing true, don't argue.

So, prefer that Malaysian consumers have choices in their entertainment? Of course they do, as long as the case in hand had nothing near anything that is remotely sensitive. (ex. sex, violence, religion, races, etc.) If not, censor away.......!!! (wa-w-w-y-y-...)

I mean, they censor all the *Fuck* *Shit* *God Damn* in the Wanted Movie and thats fine, althought it is annoying that the movie loses it audio every time someone potty mouthed. But they even cut out the part in the Ironman Movie where Stark have sex with the reporter. I mean seriously? That not acceptable? (Just so you know, i went to find some cam-ver of the movie on the internet so i can see what they cut out, hey, stop looking at me like that, i'm just human) So this behavior is platical normal to us.

Ur the bloody joke who thinks that no1's gonna buy it in legit, when in fact there are probably a whole lot of malaysians buying legit copies of it.

The fact that GTA was also covered in the Malaysian papers doesn't show any thing near us that makes us insane enough to go rob a cabby. It makes useless sense to do so in reality. Piracy still is there, but don't shoot your mouth if you don't know anything.

Honestly,as far as i know,CAP hates games in general while have almost zero knowledge about it.I have read one of their publications.They way they write is like saying games are the only cause for corrupting the youth.People who played games are all cold vicious murderers,rapist and thieves.

For them,even games like Unreal Tournament should be banned because the game "encourage" people to kill.Ridiculous bunch of idiots.

Then,why didnt they make noise when UT3 release in Malaysia?

Gawd,even movies like American History X are banned? My gawd,it's one of the best movies i ever watched.

First I would like to confirm that the gentlemen who claims that he is part of a magazine publication really is a magazine editor of Gameaxis and not just another made up figure.

Second I would like to mention that I am a Malaysian.

Now i really hope that Mr S.M. Mohamed Idris should have researched on this whole GTA debacle, first off the GTA series has been here in this country since its beginnings but only as a pirated copy and only recently has the GTA been released here legally ironically under the same importer as Thailand... New Era. I admit that piracy is wrong but the question here is that Malaysian gamers have been playing GTA for just about as long as the series has existed, the thing is that has been no case of vandalism,murder,rape etc blamed on videogames and all of a sudden our neighboour to the north get ONE case out of thousands and the consumer watchdog has to criticize the game and not the criminal in question.

I serioulsy hope that we stop blaming the the game and actually start blaming the actual criminal.

Agreed, sadly, the more governments etc get used to using the problem as an excuse to ban this, ban that, condemn this, condemn that, the less likely they are to actually strive to fix the problem, because it is too useful a tool.

As the Consumer Association of Penang (CAP) has raised the issue of increased aggression of violent videogames in young viewers, I’d like to point out that there are also several well-publicised studies that show that these videogames do not have a lasting negative impact on most players. These instances of raised aggression tend to be short term and are even quite common in teens who participate or watch competitive sports. So do we then start banning football for its links to ‘increased aggression’ in teens? In fact for most cases, videogames can be cathartic, especially for players with pent-up stress. I would advise Mohamed Idris - president of the CAP - to read the insightful Grand Theft Childhood by Harvard Medical School researchers Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson.

Furthermore, I find it odd that while the CAP mentions violent TV programmes in the email, the CAP do not demand that these violent programmes receive the same treatment as violent videogames. If the CAP is fair, then they should also demand equal action to be taken against violent TV programmes, movies, and books that are already in the market. Why single out videogames? Is it because the CAP still assumes that videogames are only for children? Yes, there are videogames for children, but a good deal of games are catered towards us young adults who are mature enough to tell right from wrong, and make sensible, responsible decisions. Too bad I can’t say the same for most of our local politicians.

As a final note, I’d like to inform the CAP that the GTA series have actually been circulating in the country, legally and illegally, for over a decade. Just how many violent crimes commited by young children or teenagers in Malaysia have been attributed to GTA or videogames? As far as I know, there has been NONE. Zero. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong though.

While I can understand the concerns that the CAP has raised, I do believe they have overstepped their boundaries on requesting the government to ban the game, especially when the association’s primary concern should be about protecting consumer rights, NOT, as Game Politics rightly pointed out, limiting our choices as consumers by requesting censorship. Gamers are consumers too, especially us adult gamers who have a right to play and enjoy games with mature content.

Not so strange, really. An NRA mole was recently exposed as holding prominent positions on many of the board of directors of gun control organizations. The Liberal consumer affairs critic in Canada has come out strongly in favour of DRM and legal protection for DRM. The Bush administration has been busilly appointing luddites to scientific positions. It happens a lot.

They want to recall versions that were already sold if the game is banned?

Like a gun armastice? Or like sending the police round to collect banned software?

In the middle of the night, with batons and pepper spray, maybe an armed unit as backup, because everyone knows the players of these games are dangerously disturbed individuals, each one transformed into Hannibal Lecter by the games they play.

It's amazing how much impact an off-the-cuff comment can make (And I'm pretty certain that's all the police comment was).
If he said "The guy clearly thought he was John Travlota in Pulp Fiction", nobody would demand the film be banned. People know movies. This is a video game though. It's something strange and scary!!! Must ban it.

GP: It's very odd to see a consumer group demanding censorship. One might think that the CAP, which has the stated objective of giving a voice to the little people, would prefer that Malyasian consumers have choices in their entertainment.

Not surprising at all. It is not unsual for a group to exist purely so it's leaders get to be the big powerful 'do what I say' people instead of someone else being those. Doesn't mean they care even a little about the little people.

Look at the various waves of feminism... first you have women trying to break the strangehold of culture control by men, and the first thing that happens is a group of women sweep into the power vacuum saying now other women should do what THEY say, and the same oppersion and control happens all over again.

"GP: It's very odd to see a consumer group demanding censorship. One might think that the CAP, which has the stated objective of giving a voice to the little people, would prefer that Malyasian consumers have choices in their entertainment."

It's about protecting "consumers", not "consumers' rights" ;)

"If this particular video game is available in Malaysia, CAP calls on the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs to immediately halt its sales and ban this game."

They could have at least checked if it was on sale. I wonder what the Malaysian laws say about banning games or other media.

Still considering that GTA4 was not released in Thailand yet, I'm still wondering how accurate the connection between GTA to the cabbie murder truly lies. It happens on a more regular basis than we might think, cabbie robberies that is... and yes some go bad, but usually are blamed on the sick individuals that commit these heinous acts.

As for the Malaysia CAP...one must remember that the country is over 60% muslim. Muslim bans over mature rated games is nothing new or mind blowing.

You mean you don't know? You don't know if it is there or not, but it is so bad it must be banned? If it was so bad, you would KNOW if it was there.

All this seems just a little too pat. A 19 year old man kills a cabbie in a robbery gone wrong... happens every week in the US, just about. Definitely happens a lot in the world scale, and yet they blame the robbery on Grand Theft Auto and suddenly the whole world tries to ban the game? How many cabbies have been murdered since this story broke? Where is their story? This whole situation stinks....

You mean you don't know? You don't know if it is there or not, but it is so bad it must be banned? If it was so bad, you would KNOW if it was there...

Heheh...ok, I'm a chinese born & living in Penang, Malaysia. This topic is actually quite funny & sad at the same time. See, i think most of u guys must remember the articles about pirate videogames stuffs in Phillipines right? Yeah, Malaysia are actually quite the same as them. Pirated Shops open & sell pirated stuffs like they're legal.

Hell, is actually harder to buy non-pirated DVDs/Cds videogame or not. i actually need to travel 4000km to my country central city - Kuala Lumpur, just to buy a non-pirated Orange Box so i can play Teamfortress 2.

So, like Phillipines pirated videogames are normal here too. (Hell, u can say they're half-legal. I actually saw police with effing uniform walkby go through some of the movie DVDs like a customer then left) So pls try to understand if those guys aren't certain if the GTA4 (it does, for PS3 & 360 & a ROM-ver for PC, cool huh?) is available here or not. It just (probably) didn't occur to him pirated-videogames are illegal.

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